Issue link: http://bluemagazine.uberflip.com/i/25062
1 Squaw Valley, California. Six inches of new snow. Skiing with an all-star local crew. Break my thumb on the second run trying to follow local Tom Cooley. He skis in deep carves. Shoulder grazing the snow like a snowboarder turn. I'm trying to follow but the skis wob ble and shimmy. They're not built for this. My hand darts out for stabil ity, my thumb catches and snaps. There's half a foot of freshie and a half pound of tape wrapped around my hand. I take it easy in the afternoon, just at play on the mountain. The 4-by-4 is nearly per fect for this-fast and responsive and great for every thing but long, high-speed turns through variable condi tionS-yeah, well, who knew? 2 3 Aspen, Colorado. Skiing Highlands with Bob Siozen. One of the great unsung. He's topped Everest twice and leaves in four days to try a hat trick. Atomic has given me a pair of 200s. They're the biggest thing I've ever skied. Downhill skis with snowshovels glued to the nose. We ski top-to-bottoms, all about speed, shoulders brushing snow, the blue sky through watery eyes. The Atomics are rock solid. 40 miles per hour, 50 miles per hour, 60 miles per hour handing it out on that ragged edge. (Were you going that fast?1 Strange skis at first, a little awkward, but then I turn, they turn, they hold the speed. Huge avalanches coming down everywhere. Tight trees and muggy slopes and debris. It's like skiing through a mudslide. The Atomics cruise. I wish there was something steeper, some way to real ly lay an edge, but all day I can't stop smiling. Whistler/Blackcomb, British Columbia. The Rossignol guy hands me the Bandits at a party. Rossignol makes them in three sizes: X, XX, XXX. I've got the XX. Huge skis. More fat ski than para bolic, perfect for the steep and deep. I look out the window, it's late April and there's some new snow. I find Canadian freestyler John Smart. He wants to check out the jump park. I figure it's a ski test so what the hell. If these planks survive the park they'll survive anywhere. The Bandits are lighter than I thought. whip around iust fine. Smart shows me how to drop my shoulder and follow it down-the first portion of a McTwist-the Bandits follow right along and then my shoulder follows right along and then my ass and my legs and I end up in a soggy pile at the bottom of a halfpipe with a dozen 10 year olds screaming at me. Still, the skis were great. A huge platform to land on---a great big-air ski. I finish on a speed demon of a run. The snow now firm and hard and icy. The Bandits right there for every turn.